I can't say I've ever compared my typing speed against that of my IT compadres, nor does it seem like typing speed would be particularly relevant to most IT folks - hopefully there's at least a little thought going on during the coding process.

Yeah, secretaries do type, but that's hardly their main job this century, and it really wasn't their job during the 90s either except for a few who had old-fogey bosses (of whatever age.) Secretaries keep track of stuff for bosses, keep and negotiate schedules better than MS Outlook, and that kind of thing.

On typing speed, I don't spend a lot of time typing unless I'm doing documentation. I'd say that my typing is somewhat faster than one of my officemates and slower than the other, and a lot more accurat

>>Yeah, secretaries do type, but that's hardly their main job this century, and it really wasn't their job during the 90s either except for a few who had old-fogey bosses (of whatever age.)

Funny you should mention old-fogey bosses. I find, as a attorney, that a vast number of older lawyers* still have their secretaries print out their email so they can read it, and then they dictate a response. It's both amusing and creepy at the same time.

Most of the time I'm writing in either English or Spanish, so I have Word set to "auto-detect" the language.

Mostly, the Spanish suggestions are crap, but the English ones are good.

But there is one that gets me everytime: in a document in Spanish (spell/grammar checking set to Spanish) if I type i) (you know, a sequence, a).. i)), Word immediately switches to English and flags it as an error... Drives me crazy.

i have to agree with you (mostly perl & shell coding for me). true if it is something small (checking if a module works in so far untested way), then coding is mostly faster, but anything more than, more time is taken in thinking what to do in next few lines then typing. as for me, quite sometime is also wasted on thinking what to call a variable! so comparing is mostly useless unless LoC is really a metric!but as far as simple commands on bash goes, well, it quick (followed by a jerkish enter) unless i

Actually my peers noticed it before I did. I work in Graphics and have had a long technical background where a lot of them come from art backgrounds. They were peering (no pun intended(...Ok, maybe partially)) over my shoulder and were amazed with how fast I was typing. That's when I started noticing how slow they were. Of course they're faster than me at certain other tasks.

hopefully there's at least a little thought going on during the coding process.

For almost any creative process, the limiting factor will usually be your ability to come up with something worth typing rather than the speed you can type it- at least over the long haul. I can type at something like 50 wpm, which is OK but nothing special, but it's still 120,000 words for a 40 hour week if I could keep it up. That's enough for a decent-sized novel every week or two, and somebody faster than me could do someth

In answer to the question in the subject, no , but I DID take an Adult School typing class (probably similar to the high school course that was aimed at future secretaries) that upgraded me from a two finger typist, constantly looking for the next key then at the screen to make sure that I hit the right key, to a nine fingered (left pinky still more likely to hit the caps lock than the "a" key) typist who only looks once in a while. Just being able to type at 12 wpm properly, or 24 wpm shifting gaze as nee

I've noticed that my typing speed has not changed much in the last 30 years (I type less than I used to, but intermittently type a lot). However, my error rate has definitely gone up in the last 10 years. There are two possible culprits, as far as I can see: (i) in my 50s, and age is creeping up on me; (ii) too many changes in keyboard, especially on laptops. I tend to blame the latter, of course, as I change my work laptop every couple of years, use a variety of other keyboards at work (desktop and laptop) with a few different language layouts, and use three different keyboards on the home PCs. It used to be much simpler.

I have suffered form arthritis for years, but around 2007 it got a lot worse and my typing accuracy took a dive as well. Now it varies over time, depending how tired my joints are, ambient temperature and so forth.

It's a little like being slightly drunk at times. You go to press a key and somehow miss and hit the one next to it, or your muscle memory doesn't seem to work.

I used to be a (mostly newspaper) typesetter, back when dedicated 'cold type' typesetting machines were required, namely, pre-PC. The keyboards on those machines were amazingly good, albeit usually all grey and twice as wide as a simple qwerty board, so if you got off the home keys you would hear horrible clunking sounds as their positioning mechanics attempted to execute gibberish commands. I was able to cruise along at 120 words per minute on those, with vanishingly few errors despite having only a 16-character horizontally scrolling LED bar to show me what I was keying. The laborious process of pasting in corrections definitely encouraged accuracy.

Racing deadlines and with typical news stories which rarely contain complex words, I could manage sustained bursts of nearly 140 wpm with very few errors.

Today, at 59, I have been seduced by the ease with which errors are corrected on PCs, as well as the wonders of GUI environments, and my raw typing speed not only has fallen to 80-85 wpm, I also make a lot more errors requiring the backspace key. You have to practice just as you do with music to maintain very high typing speeds, and today's environments simply do not require or reward such effort for most people.

The best typesetter I knew was an accomplished classical pianist. He could typeset 140 wpm for hours at a time, while carrying on casual conversations with passersby and editors, with almost no errors whatsoever, including while setting *classified ads* with all their cryptic abbreviations. The proofreaders -- yes, young whippersnappers, there used to be actual people who proofread copy before it was published! -- loathed and despised him, because few things are as boring as proofreading and never finding any errors.

Note that while such speeds may be impressive without context, there is a vast difference between the cognitive dissociation from content almost required of a typesetter or transcriber, contrasted with the very different mind-to-motor-skill requirements of *composing* while typing.

As for keyboards themselves, few PC keyboards in my experience rise above the level of execrable. The IBM Model M was an exception, while more recently and of a completely different type, the Logitech K800's (backlit!) keyswitches have finally made notebook-style keyboards a joy to use. The overwhelmingly vast majority of PC keyboards available today, however, still suck donkey butt with a vengeance.

I like my vintage Model M the best, but I think my Cherry G80-3000 comes close. The Cherry is much more co-worker acceptable in an open plan office, but I still get occasional comments about how clicky it is.

I may get a Unicomp Customizer and see how they are, while I still have the Model M working for comparison (not that I expect it to fail anytime soon). UK layout Model Ms are getting thin on the ground, and the lack of a "Meta" (Windows / Penguin / OSX Squiggly Thing) key is a *mild* annoyance on occasi

Taking any medications that you weren't when you were younger?I've recently noticed that I make more typing errors since changing to another blood pressure medicine. Quite a number of medicines can do that kind of thing.

Taking any medications that you weren't when you were younger?
I've recently noticed that I make more typing errors since changing to another blood pressure medicine. Quite a number of medicines can do that kind of thing.

The earlier respondent who asked if the increase in error rate coincided with me "not caring" made me think, however. But "not care" about what, exactly? Perhaps I don't care so much about the error rates, or perhaps I just don't care so much about work. Despite the guaranteed pensions here, I still expect to be working into my late 60's, of course.

Is that you type less until the subcontractor you have employed to update the script you have written to do your work for you while you have coffee and check email. I know that is how the mornings go for me, call India to start script, have coffee, let boss know it's completed, don't mention India to boss.

I got promoted for doing that.We had a completely *mental* process where we would get an XLS file and had to manually translate the tables of register names and bit positions into C structs.Budgeted time: 2 person weeks.I spent the two weeks writing a perl script that did everything I needed (ok, 2 hours, then the rest of the time making it do 'cool' stuff to the source code, and compiler, and source control, and....)Total runtime of the script? 2.5 minutes.

Did this for a couple projects, turned in the changes same day I would get the XLS files. Boss thought I was doing something akin to faking it. Showed him the script, got a promotion 1 month later.He asked me how I thought of doing it that way, told him I was lazy, this was easier...

I don't have any peers because I'm retired. Still, back when I was working, I probably typed faster than most of them, and was fairly accurate as well. Now, who cares? Fast typing only matters when your time is worth money, and mine hasn't been for years.

Mine is loud. People, especially my co(lleagues/workers) say I type fast and loud like a machine gun on clicky keyboards (not even Model M!). Some of the gals complained about it. http://aqfl.net/node/5825 [aqfl.net] for the details.:(

I don't like noise, and (as beeing the owner of the company) suggested a couple keyboard changes.

Doesn't help.

Some guys that probably have never worked on, or maybe even seen a mechanical typewriter still seem to think that if they hit the keys harder (and max only use 4 fingers and 2 thumbs) the computers understands it better.

Don't think that is the way it works, but hey, I use other methods to irritate my minions.

I can, and it's a pretty useful skill for someone who lives in a cubicle all workweek. I've been surprised at people who've spent 20+ years in front of computers and never learned to type without staring at the keyboard and pecking with one or two fingers. Like my father who learned drafting in college where I learned CAD, and the always in front of your own computer thing showed up during his career. It doesn't take long to learn, but apparently you do have to try to learn.

Due to forced typing class in high school, I can touch type, but I'm still a slow typist. I've done programming and technical writing, and I understand why some programmers don't touch type, syntax is a bitch.;) And technical writing which includes coding syntax on occasion make my typing even slower, trying to ensure syntax accuracy.

Touch typing is very helpful as a skill, an especially, when you learn how to incorporate short cut keys in your touch typing for faster editing.

I'm confused. Where they hell are all the geeks? Correctly or otherwise touch typing (not looking at the damn keyboard) seems like a skill inseparable from effective usage of a PC in a professional IT setting. I'd find it quite impossible to take anyone that constantly bounces their eyes back and forth from keyboard to screen seriously.

Among the software developers I work with about a third (including myself) touch type. I have not noticed that the touch typists produce code faster, or better. It seems to be an entirely independent variable. I think I may have noticed a slight correlation between those who hunt and peck and their fondness for graphical software creation (UML etc.). Using the mouse to make that parameter const instead of typing it drives me insane, but if you can't touch type, perhaps it takes the same amount of time.

I've been trying to learn to touch type for years. Problem is, having never learned to do it early on, after 20 odd years of doing it 'wrong', I'd developed a 'psychic hover' 4 finger method (though roughly 80% of the keyboard was covered by my dominant hand) where I only needed to look down to reset my hand position when I made an error, maybe once every three sentences or so - I just had muscle memory of where the keys were. Even so, I typed faster than pretty much everyone I know, bar professional typist

I touch-type. I learned it with QWERTY back in high school, although to improve my accuracy and achieve my highest speeds I "cheated" by doing things like looking down (hey, at high speeds my hands are flying around all over the place, it's the most efficient way to re-align my hands; the bumps on F and J are worthless...) and simplified things by using the left shift key exclusively (the right was just too hard to reach and use fast and accurately...).

It would seem, from the poll results thus far, that a significant portion of the respondents are natives of the mythical Lake Woebegone. It probably has something to do with the general fragility of the human psyche. Possibly it could be conditioning from overt praise for mediocre accomplishment intended to bolster self esteem in order to pre-emptively mitigate the former which ironically has made them more defensive as a.... Ohhhhhh where's my bottle of fuckitol as if I could really give a rats a

The local broadsheet has a daily section called "Odd Spot" which contains some trivia item or funny news. Today's item was about a man in the UK who had failed his drivers licence test 107 times. From the UK press [dailymail.co.uk].

Without drawing too many conclusions I'd assume that the demographic frequenting slashdot is above average computer interested even among their peers, double that if your set of immediate peers are a mixed bunch of people not so heavily into IT. For example at the education I took I would say 100% of the students were better than the average student, try wrapping your head around that one.

I've found that I do have more errors that I used to as I type. And my speed is not nearly what it used to be. However, I easily out-type news reporter friends of mine while chatting (both on computers - not mobile). They write a couple of articles a day. Shouldn't they have more key presses than a coder?

I'm blaming the newer keyboards for a lot of the increased errors that I feel that I'm hitting. Keyboards from the 1980s just felt a lot better. You had to have intent to hit a key. That doesn't seem to be the case any more.

I used to repair photocopiers, and one of our accounts was the New England Patriots. During games, they needed a tech right there in the press box in case the copier broke down. Anyway, I couldn't believe how bad the sports reporters were at typing on their laptops.. every one of them was hunting and pecking with their index fingers. I figured they'd be faster.

I went for "about the same", as the only people typing ever around me are fellow software engineers, and are also pretty nifty. Compared to the average in the population, we could all shit on them but that wasn't what was asked. Perhaps people just misinterpreted the question?

It depends on how narrowly you want to define "your peers". I'm male, software developer, age 32. If I went to court, and was in front of a jury of my peers, I wouldn't expect all the jurors to be 27-37 year old male software developers. Peers doesn't necessarily mean people who do the same profession as you, or even people you come in contact with on a daily basis.

I, for one, tell people that my large amount of PC gaming (according to my parent's) on our dial-up internet connection is the primary reason that I can type both "fast" (80-100 wpm sustained depending on the application) and free of errors.

When all you have is a dial-up connection and the family computer, you can't communicate via any other method than typing really fast. Having the ability to quickly and accurately tell my friend he's battlefield information was a priceless skill.

For the off-topic secretarial digs that say typing speed isn't important to IT, ummm, where do you work because the faster I can get email responses out to people the better, and the fewer errors the better. If you're in IT and NOT typing I want your job!

That would only be relevant if the poll was "Compared to other slashdot readers, my typing:"

It is entirely possible that ~52% (as it now stands) of people who visit this site and respond to polls are in fact better typists than their peers. I responded that I'm both faster and less error prone not because I think I'm particularly skilled at typing, but rather that my peers as a group average just above hunt and peck speeds. Actually, I would consider my typing to be below average by most standards.

on the lack of typing skill these days. I was trying to reproduce an error report on a laptop where it would drop characters when typing. My typing was just not really fast enough to reproduce the error, and the person reporting was off site. I went around most of the office looking for fast typists. I only found two people who even thought they might be fast. I have never managed to learn to touch type, (Poor hand eye coordination.) but was still far faster than anyone else in the office.

I can certainly believe slashdotters are better typists than non-slashdotters. I'd expect most people here to be above-average typists.

In my case, we actually had an office competition to find the fastest typist (the winner would get a keyboard that was being coveted by many). I therefore have actual evidence I'm faster and type with less errors than my immediate peers. That said, it was pretty close all around, I didn't smoke them or anything.

I can't seem to stop making the it's / its error. That one in particular show s up at the same rate in my typing regardless of how fast I type. As for spelling errors or other important matters, I would say my error rate is no worse than anyone else.

Also, where is the "faster, but the same rate of error" option? This seems like an obvious choice.

I'm a software engineer. I've been doing this for years. It always amazes me how many of my coworkers can't touch type. (I mean they've used keyboards for years, why the hell wouldn't you touch type? It makes coding a far more enjoyable experience when you don't have to take your attention away from the problem you need to solve so you can find the 'a' key.)

I don't know if I really type faster than my coworkers, but they lose significant speed using the mouse. E.g. when I copy and paste 3 words, I select them with 3x Ctrl-Shift-Left, then copy with Ctrl-C, then change windows with Alt-Tab and paste with Ctrl-V. Who doesn't? It takes 2 seconds at most.

My nearest coworker over whose shoulder I sometimes peek for fun, never fails to surprise me by actions like using Copy from Menu bar -> Edit in the middle of typing, or by trying to find the previously focused

I have a Das Keyboard ultimate (completely black keys, no letter marks at all) and every time a colleague works with me and wants to type, I love seeing their reaction. I can type for half an hour sitting next to them and they would _not_ notice that the keys are black, so they're just baffled when they try and use it:)

(I do keep a "guest" keyboard and mouse stashed away, but connected to the same PC, but always wait before pulling them out:) )

85 words per minute seems to be about my limit if I don't want to make a bunch of mistakes. Surprisingly, it's only about 10 words per minute faster than I typed on a manual typewriter in Grade 10 over 30 years ago. On the bright side, I haven't slowed down.:)

I spend more time thinking about algorithms than typing them, so I don't think my typing speed (which I never noticed to be significantly faster or slower than that of most programmers) matters a lot.

I worked with some programmers who did produce code at a high enough speed for their typing speed to make a difference, and in my opinion they were without exception extremely sloppy programmers, who produced large amounts of code that was buggy, difficult to maintain, badly documented, and often much larger th

I spend more time thinking about algorithms than typing them, so I don't think my typing speed (which I never noticed to be significantly faster or slower than that of most programmers) matters a lot.

I don't only write algorithms; I also write comments, documentation, emails, and personal stuff. I find being able to type at a decent rate very useful. It's frustrating and distracting if I can't write my thoughts down fast enough, e.g. if I am temporarily using an unfamiliar keyboard layout.

(I touchtype using Dvorak layout, which means I can type reasonably quickly for long periods comfortably. That's also very important.)

It should have been "Do you feel more or less susceptible to the Dunning-Kreuger Effect than the general populace?"

Not at all. I would be shocked if the average Slashdot reader did not type faster and with fewer errors than the average person. The average Slashdot reader uses computers every day, or nearly so, and types pretty much all the time. By contrast, the average human being as a group pretty much clicks the mouse all the time, but types remarkably infrequently.